2020 Census will aim to count every Fort Worth resident

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Councilmembers Carlos Flores and Kelly Allen Gray present a proclamation of support to Jennifer Pope, partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fort Worth has begun its efforts to make sure every resident is counted in the 2020 Census.

Councilmembers Carlos Flores (District 2) and Kelly Allen Gray (District 8) presented a proclamation of support to the U.S. Census Bureau. April 1, 2020, has been designated Census Day.

In the coming weeks, Fort Worth’s Complete Count Committee will be announced. This diverse group of community leaders will develop and implement an outreach plan to encourage all residents to respond to the 2020 Census. The plan will focus on reaching Fort Worth’s hard-to-count communities — those who are least likely to respond to typical Census efforts.

As mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the nation gets just one chance each decade to count its population. The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States. The data collected by the census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities.

The next census in 2020 will require counting an increasingly diverse and growing population of about 330 million people in more than 140 million housing units. To get an accurate count, the Census Bureau must build an accurate address list of every housing unit, maximize self-response to the census and follow up with those who do not respond.